Example research essay topics, free essays

Cities In Europe - 648 words
Provence has been called a bridge between the past
and the present, where yesterday blends with
today. This beautiful place lies in the southern
part of France, and is bordered on the east by
Italy , on the south by the Mediterranean Sea, and
on the west by the Rhone River. The area abounds
with flower fields, vineyards, orchards, and olive
and mulberry groves. Along the seacoast is the
French Rivera and the Ports of Marseille and
Toulon. Provence has its own language The region
originally formed part of a Roman province called
Provincia Romana, built in the 120 B.C. It was
passed into the possession of several ancient
Germanic peoples, the Visigoths, the Ostrogoths,
and the Frankish kings. ...
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Gothic Style - 988 words
The term Gothic style in architecture has taken
many forms. The term Gothic originated in France.
It is best known through the Gothic cathedral.
Through engineering, intellect and spirituality
these cathedrals perfectly express the medieval
mind. This style was widespread throughout Europe.
Unlike other arts, this style was not uniform in
nature nor was it uniform in date. This style has
three main chararistics that make it its own
unique style, known as Gothic. First it is known
for its pointed arches that rise above the
churches. This not only represents a symbol of
Gothic spirituality, but a practicality in
engineering. These arches redistributed the thrust
of downward force in a more equ ...
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Christmas In Spain - 1,163 words
Christmas in Spain is a very joyous and religious
time of year. You will see that a Spanish
Christmas has a lot of American influence but also
has much of their own heritage in it. In small
towns and villages it is more traditional and
distinctly Spanish. It is in the bigger cities
that you will find more American and European
customs. For an example, will only see a Santa
Claus walking around in Madrid and other big
cities. The idea of Santa has spread through out
Spain more today. The climate and the language
differ and so does Christmas in Spain. The Spanish
customs and traditions in small towns also will
differ than in the big cities. In Spain there are
two regions, the north and the sou ...
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Spains Golden Age - 2,216 words
... rd, thus collapsing them. A building's
vertical supporting walls thus had to be made
extremely thick and heavy in order to contain the
barrels vaults outward thrust. Medieval masons
solved this difficult problem about 1120 with a
number of brilliant innovations First and foremost
they developed a ribbed vault, in which arching
and intersecting stone ribs support a vaulted
ceiling surface that is composed of mere thin
stone panels. This greatly reduced the weight (and
thus the outward thrust) of the ceiling vault, and
since the vault's weight was now carried at
discrete points (the ribs) rather than along a
continuous wall edge, separate widely spaced
vertical piers to support the ribs co ...
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A New And Malevolent Superstition - 2,345 words
... be risen, was folly. The fact that Christians
believed in the message of this crucified one,
adopting a preference for the outcasts and poor
(the dregs of humanity) and preaching brotherly
love for everyone (in a society tightly built in a
pyramid and considered the 'natural order') was
another intolerable folly, which everyone
rejected. Christians had to be eliminated as the
adversaries of human civilisation. The criticism
of antichristian intellectuals was marked by the
same idea of "revelation from above", not based on
"philosophical wisdom"; on Christian scriptures,
which had contradicted history, and logic; on the
"irrational" teachings; on the actions of the
LOGOS of God that becam ...
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Chartres Cathedral - 1,713 words
The medieval Gothic cathedral was in many ways a
civic building as well as a religious one. This
particularly was the case with the famous
cathedral Notre-Dame de Chartres (Our Lady of
Chartres) in the town of the same name, 80km
south-east of Paris, built in the 13th century.
Chartres cathedral was planned not only as a place
of worship, but also developed as the centre of
the town's economy and way of life, as the place
that housed the relic of the cloak of the Virgin
Mary. The local citizens assisted the building of
the cathedral by providing the labour, giving food
to the workers and donating money to pay for its
construction. The architecture of the cathedral
dominated the town in the w ...
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Chartres Cathedral - 1,649 words
... furrier making a cloak with some assistants
(Fig. 8); lastly on the bottom 'petal' of the
miracles of Mary window, two butchers cut meat for
a customer (Fig. 9) Secular glass windows showing
the trade of the donors were also complimented by
the use of some secular sculptures on the outside
of the cathedral. Sculptures at the cathedral
included not only religious images, but also
images of kings and queens. The sculptures on the
west facade depict Christ's ascension into heaven,
episode from his life, saints, apostles, Christ in
the lap of Mary and other religious scenes. (See
Fig. 10) Below the religious figures are statues
of kings and queens, which is the reason why this
entrance is kn ...
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Roman Architecture - 1,611 words
The Roman society, like any other, had its humble
beginnings. The history of their architecture runs
virtually in step with the history of their empire
to an extent. As the Empire expanded so did the
architecture, and as Romans became more
magnificent their architecture followed. Roman
architecture had its humble beginnings as a form
of worship. The first Roman architects were the
ancient priests and dwellers who made areas of
sacrifice and worship for their gods. At first,
their homes were simple huts but as they grew
smarter and more aware of their surroundings, they
erected monumental sites for their gods. This
space shall be for worship and for nothing else;
it shall be four-square; wha ...
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Design Of The Medieval Period - 931 words
There were two main styles of architecture in the
middle ages. Gothic period in architecture
followed the Romanesque period. However, they did
not follow the same elements. The primary
difference between buildings Gothic and Romanesque
style is ideological, besides their architectural
styles are different. Gothic style architecture
included big churches called cathedrals.
Cathedrals had tall skyscraper-like towers.
Romanesque architecture had big internal spaces.
These buildings had barrel vaults, columns,
windows, and doors with rounded arches. The
buildings were solid and heavy with small windows.
The construction of the cathedrals was more than
hundreds of years (Macdonald 14). The overal ...
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